Chapter 36

Naro awoke in the room that Mila had brought him too back when she was still Nefi. Aeli had been sitting nearby reading when he woke up, Mila was asleep nearby and while she was sleeping Aeli told him two things. The first was that she had stayed by his side the whole time he had been asleep which had been a full day. The second which she stood up and walked over him to say were two simple words.
“Thank you.”

She also told him Za’lovo meant brother in their tongue, which when he asked how she knew about that, the Dragon Beastkin smiled at him and pointed at her heart.

“I got some of your memories too.”

Bringing a finger to her lips ending the conversation she pointed to Mila who soon awoke, and after playing off why she was sleeping in the room also thanked him.

“Thank you Naro…thank you for saving my sister. I’ll repay this one day. I swear.”

While Naro wanted to relax a bit longer Mila informed him that Sika wanted to see him, hearing it was important he returned to his home where he was waiting. When he entered he found Sika sitting munching on a loaf of bread, when she noticed him she held out a spare one.

He took it with a smile and sat next to her, for a moment the two ate together in silence with Sika breaking the silence first.

“...I lost both my homes to Shadow Mages.”

Naro looked over at her mid bite when she spoke up.

“My original home got caught in a conflict between Light Mages and Dark Mages. I was one of the few survivors. I…lost faint in everything before I was adopted by a kind woman named Celine, she gave me my hope back. The second time…was destroyed by a follow of the Shade Empress. He killed Celine in the process.”

“I…I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault. I…I had a long talk with Mentor and well I had a lot of time to think too. None of this…is your fault Naro. I’m sorry for the way I acted before.”

“Oh no it’s fine. I get it, Shadow Mages bad.”

“It’s not fine, you’re a good person. Naro I-”

Sika looked over at Naro, she opened her mouth, only to close it and clenching her fist forced the words out.

“I cherish what I have here. I like Aeli, I like the pipsqueak…on occasion. I like Leona…and I like you. I love it here.”

“O-oh, wait by ‘like’ could you clarify what you mean exactly. On a scale of 1 to 10 or-”

“Platonically,” Sika said narrowing her eyes at him. “I like you platonically.”

“Right yeah that makes sense. I like you too…uh platonically.”

Naro looked back at his bread, trying to ignore the warmth in his cheeks he continued.

“I…I used to think I needed to find Kasia and figure out why all of this happened, why my life was taken and why I was thrown ino this world…but…the more I spend time with you all…the less I seem to care about it. Now I just…I just want to hold onto this. Onto everything. So I’m glad you like it here, because I like it too.”

Sika offered a small smile to Naro who happily returned it.

“Thank you…anyway,” Sika said standing up and clearing her throat. “I wanted to share that with you. I wanted you to know where where that hate came from…and apologize for it. You should see Mentor. She had something to tell you too.”

Sika motioned towards the door.

“She’ll be here soon. I’ll see you later.”

Raising her hand Sika walked out of the door and shortly after she left Leona entered the room, and with a wave she took a seat across from Naro.

Taking a deep breath she released a small sigh.

“The Basic Package is pretty difficult to deal with isn’t it?”

“The Basic…wait Mentor you’re a reincarnation too?!”

“I am. I’m in the 70’s if I remember correctly.”

It took Naro a moment to take in what was in front of him, but he eventually found himself and spoke up.

“109,” Naro said pointing at himself. “Does that mean you know why I’m here?”

“To an extent, remember how I told you there were six classes of Mages.”

“Yeah back at Mila and Aeli’s.”

“Yes, well there’s Mage, Adept, Caster, Master, Sage…and Magister.”

Leona leaned forward folding her hands together, her eyelids lowering slightly.

“Most don’t know the last class as the Deities would rather not let it be known that they can in fact be beaten. You gain that title by defeating a Deity. That’s why you’re here…why we’re all here. We’re generally summoned to ‘kill’ a Deity. Kasia is the most active at present but well...I was summoned by another.”

Leona went silent her eyes narrowed a bit but whatever memory that came to her she pushed aside.

“So yeah, you were summoned to be an assassin basically. Reincarnations are pretty strong and Kasia well…has to use Reincarnations.”

“...why?”

“Because of the Celestial. I told Sika this but…the Celestial is able to rewrite the world’s ‘opinon’. While she can’t control free will, she can implant a ‘fact’ into everyone’s mind. Since the position of Celestial can be taken by other Deities, and Kasia is her greatest enemy she made a simple one.”

“...Shadow Mages are bad,” Naro said.

“Precisely. So Kasia has less assets in this world, so she reaces out into the other worlds. This has gone on for…centuries. You’re just one of many.”

“That…is something…so what do I then? Do I have to…kill the Celestial”

“You do nothing.”

“Huh.”

“Kasia has no interest in you, you’re too weak and there are plenty others. Live your life, do what you want.”

Leona stood up from her seat brushing off her buttom and pat Naro on the shoulder.

“Protect what’s in front of you and hold onto what you have. We'll continue training tomorrow. Oh and Sika became a bit more open-minded after realizing her hatred was manifested by someone else. Feel free to tease her about that.”

Raising her hand she walked out the door leaving Naro with his thoughts.

For once he didn’t have a thousand questions, as he stood up he put aside any lingering thoughts.

All he needed to do was face what was in front of him one step at a time, and keep what he cared about safe, nothing else mattered